Degu feeding.

[8uckw1ld]

Hello,

I am feeding my Degus 'Extrusion' feed. The person at Pets Unlimited (Who breeds Degus aswell) said it was perfect for Degus. It says it's for Hamsters though. I feed three times a day. I feed them in the morning (4 pellets) then in the afternoon (3 pellets) and then around 8pm I feed them another 4 pellets. Now every now and then, I'll give them a few sunflower seeds. Is this healthy or should I re-consider their diet?

[moletteuk]

Hi Unfortunately it's unlikely to be suitable for degus because degus require a low protein diet and hamsters require higher protein food.
Recommended foods are JR Farm Degu Premium/Special, Beaphar Xtravital, Supreme Science Selective, Pets@Home nuggets.
They also need unlimited hay, and nothing sugary.
We also recommend herb mixes in addition to the hay, and things like dried veg and flowers make great treats.
There's loads of info around the forum or feel free to ask away.

[NightwishRaven999]

Oh dear, this is not good and I am glad you decide to post about it here. You need to switch diets as soon as possible. The forum has embarked on what we call a 50% natural feeding project, which involves using lots of fresh produce to accompany the staple diet.

But for those of us here, where the choices are more limited it is very important to use a solid/relatively healthy choice of degu hard feed. I am afraid many of the recommended brands you will find on this forum are not available in your area.

Here, the most common brand is a belgium import: Versele-Laga.
Do you have this in New Brunswick ?

[8uckw1ld]

I'm an hour away from any pet store so I don't know. It's winter time so anything like flowers is pretty scarce lol.

[NightwishRaven999]

I have tried to locate a Pets Unlimited shop or one of their sister stores PJ's Pets, but I am unable to find one here. They are all around Canada, throughout the maritime provinces, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, but none in Québec.

Perhaps you could find the number of one of stores closest to you and phone them to find out if they carry any Versele Laga Degu Nature food. The next time you go get the pet supplies, you should place in an order at your local shop. If am sure they would be able to import this feed.

It is very important for the health and welfare of your degus that you purchase appropriate degu feed.

[Karma]

In the mean time if you are having issues finding the VL food... Hagen's Living world healthy timothy chinchilla pellets would work in the short term. Martin by little friends has a guinea pig food without sugar, same with sunseed vita degu formula. Both would be a lower quality option but MUCH better than the extrusion food.

Degus need a small animal pellet with nutrition between chinchillas and guinea pigs as a start. Ideally would be a mix between the two (although I still think versele-laga pro pellets or degu nature is preferably over anything else). Many of the pellets have molasses or other forms of sugar in them which is very bad for degus as they cannot metabolize sugar.

Hamster extrusion bars are like eating high protein meal replacement bars - the ones atheletes use. I personally don't even like to use them strictly with hamsters because they take away the different textures and foraging aspect of little and big seeds plus all your extras. Depending on the brand too some of them are only made to be used as a supplement to other types of food.

Make sure your degus are eating a lot of hay and try to limit their pellet intake by drying vegetables to feed them (i believe there is a post somewhere about drying zuchini and carrots) and drying other leaves like parsely, dandelion etc that you should be able to buy in a health food store or most grocery stores.

Hope your degus get some better food soon!! and enjoy having them, they are awesome!

[8uckw1ld]

I actually found the food (Degu Pro) on a site and looked up the nutrition facts. My food and Versele-Laga food are the exact same.The only difference being one is more expensive then the other. So I'm alright with that section, what I'd like to know is how much I feed them in a day. As for healthy greens, I live in a very small town (about 4,000-5,000 people) and the grocery stores don't carry that stuff, and if they did the price would be through the roof. So I'm stuck until the snow goes away. Then I'll be able to pick some flowers and other greens for them. But for now as I quickly found out, the food I'm giving them is alright..for now until I'm able to make them better and more healther foods.

P.s,

The cage is just about done. Just have to make trip to town to pick up the glass doors and slider tracks. They're going to go nuts in this cage! Have it all rigged up with toys (Which are safe ofcourse.)

[moletteuk]

Sorry for UK related advice, although I don't think you were showing as being in Canada when I replied, or I could be going loopy ;-)

[8uckw1ld]

Feb 20, 2012 19:46:10 GMT moletteuk said:

Sorry for UK related advice, although I don't think you were showing as being in Canada when I replied, or I could be going loopy ;-)

No, I just figured out how to put that lol.

[liyah512]

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum and I am a new Degu owner of two approximately 4 month old Degus

I just bought a ferrett cage for the two layered with wood shavings, along with a wheel, a glass dish for food, a glass water bottle and a wood hideout/home that is approved for their chewing nature. The dimentions of the cage are 30Lx18Wx16H. This almost seems too big, but I know they will grow, so is this enough space for them?

I also bought Sunseed Vita Exotics Degu Forumla pellets and Timothy Hay. Is this also good?

[davx]

Hi,

are the dimensions in inch?
Degus need in fact quite big cages. I cannot recommend cages smaller than 100 x 50 cm ground area and 100 cm height, but of course for shorter times they can live in smaller cages. Anyways they use their space if it is provided and for long terms they need the size I mentioned or if possible also more. If keeping in the garden is possible, that is always a great opportunity because enclosures with several squaremetres area are feasable and are a great enrichment for the degus.
In indoor keeping space is often strongly limited. So we have to deal with available space and the minimum requirements of our degus.

[liyah512]

The dimentions of my cage are Inches. I have already had someone tell me on another post that the cage size is small and is probably the MINIMUM size cage. I plan on building one, but I am miving soon, so I wanted to wait.